Scanning My Family's History

bkazdan

My family has just unveiled a large number of photos to me that I would love to digitize. At first I thought they only had a few hundred images, but now I think they have thousands and they span three generations and nearly a century.

I would like to find a PC and Mac compatible scanner. My goal is to import the pictures at a high enough resolution and quality so that the photos can be retouched (many will need it). Also I need this to be something that I can accomplish within a reasonable period of time, say a year. So a relatively quick scanner would be important.

Newsy

bkazdan wrote: »

My family has just unveiled a large number of photos to me that I would love to digitize. At first I thought they only had a few hundred images, but now I think they have thousands and they span three generations and nearly a century.

I would like to find a PC and Mac compatible scanner. My goal is to import the pictures at a high enough resolution and quality so that the photos can be retouched (many will need it). Also I need this to be something that I can accomplish within a reasonable period of time, say a year. So a relatively quick scanner would be important.

I take it you have a mix of media - prints, sllides, negatives - in various sizes?

If so, you likely will be best off with a flatbed scanner such as one of these:

Epson V750
Epson V700
Epson V600
Epson V500 (I believe the V600 replaced it)
Canon 9000F (the latest Canon scanner0
Canon 8800F

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/scanners_page.htm
http://www.imaging-resource.com/SCAN1.HTM

Myself... I'm in much the same position as you. A couple of thousand 35mm slides dating back to the 60's, some black and white prints dating back to the 30's. I want to get them scanned before the subjects leave us. I'll probably go for the Canon 9000F or Epson V600 .

You'll likely also need a whole lot of extra hard drive space too.

.

Art Scott

I am looking into a Slide Neg duplicator...they run about $55 and just screw on a 50 or 55 mm lens.......
Used ones Waaay back when i was shooting tons of slides to make dupes to send to clients or prospects
and it had a T-mount system that was popular with Tamron's Adaptall aline of lenses..but it was not tamron it was like Spiratone....
Now I see they make them to attach by the lenses filter threads.........

What I really like about this way of doing it is that I can duplicate my film as RAW FILES at my cameras MP.........
gotta be better than scanning.....for prints I bought a brand new covered in dust TestRite Copy stand
(price tag was $155....I picked it up for $50)....and for now I am using my Konica Minolta A2
for copying the prints as 8mp Raws...............

ziggy53

I can vouch for the Epson Perfection V500 as a proofing scanner. It has pretty good speed, reasonably good resolution (perfectly fine for 5" x 7" and occasionally an 8" x 10 if you use care), digital ICE (to remove much of the dust and scratches from compatible media) and it scans both transparent media and prints.

If you find the occasional image that deserves more attention feel free to send it to an agency that uses a drum scanner. Drum scans are expensive, but that's the best way to get all of the intrinsic quality of the original negative/slide.

You can still find the V500 for very nice prices:

http://www.amazon.com/Epson-B11B189011-Epson-Perfection-V500-Photo-Scanner/dp/B000VG4AY0

Consider third party software for best control over the scan process. VueScan gets very good reviews and I believe you can find a version for most computer operating systems:

http://www.hamrick.com/

bkazdan

At this time it looks like I will primarily be scanning photographs that range from Polaroids to 5x7.

I have a few negatives, but am not concerned with them since there aren't as many.

It seems like Epson is the favored brand for flatbed scanners. Are there any flatbeds that allow for queuing with a scanning tray? I have never seen a tray fed scanner for photos before, but it would be helpful given the number I have to work with.

colourbox

You will want to hone your bulk processing workflow. It is strongly recommended that you use Lightroom, Aperture, or ACR/Bridge for your scan editing. The presets, sync, and copy/paste corrections features can help you apply general white balance/endpoints/curve correction to entire rolls in one swoop, or at least get them in the ballpark enough that individual edits are minimized. Load up 100-200 slides and flip from image to image making quick fixes with sliders, hit dust spots with your spotting tool, apply noise reduction to reduce grain, etc.

Lightroom etc are much faster at precise correcting than the scanning software is, so I actually scan without doing too much at the scanner and wait until I get them into the editing software to get it right. Usually, if I can get the Tone Curve right for one image, most of the rest of the roll can use the same curve. Select, hit a button, and they all get it.

Save Photoshop for the individual scans that need major repair like long scratches, water spots, or torn prints. When you have that many slides, you don't want to open them all in Photoshop, it will take too much time.

VueScan is a little hard to learn, but it gives you so much control. I definitely use that.

bkazdan

I am planning on batch scanning everything in as is and then touching up after. More important than refining these images for reprint is the actual initial capture. I can batch clean them at another time.